Theodosia Burr was born on June 21, 1783 in Albany, but passed most of her girlhood in New York City. Raised by her doting father, Theodosia grew up in New York City where, especially following the death of her mother, she was known as the "hostess of Richmond Hill. "
Her education, under the careful direction of her father, included mental discipline such as did not fall to the lot of many girls of her generation.
So, in addition to the customary French, music, and dancing, Theodosia began early to apply her mind to arithmetic, Latin, Greek, and English composition--the last in the form of letters to her father which were promptly returned with detailed criticisms. After the death of her mother, when Theodosia was eleven, her father gave his personal attention to her social education, instructing her--and few other teachers were so competent--in the arts and artifices of getting on with people.
At fourteen Theodosia Burr was beginning to be hostess for him at Richmond Hill. The story is told that in 1797, while Burr was away, at his request she entertained Joseph Brant, chief of the Six Nations, giving a dinner in his honor to which she invited, among other guests, Dr. Hosack, Dr. Bard, and the Bishop of New York .
Some of her friends thought that her marriage to be a political move on the part of her father, and bewailed her "sacrifice" to "affluence and influential connections". But her letters show that Theodosia was attached to her husband, and the birth of their son in 1802 gave her a new interest so overwhelming that the comments of friends mattered naught.
The next few years were broken by trips to Saratoga and Ballston Spa in the effort to restore Theodosia's health--very delicate since the birth of the boy--and by visits to her father in New York.
In the summer of 1806, she took Aaron Burr Alston and went with Burr to Blennerhassett's Island in the Ohio, where she completely captivated both the proprietor and his wife. She was joined by Alston in October, some weeks later returning with him to South Carolina. Burr was arrested the following spring, and during his trial Theodosia was with him in Richmond, sharing his anxiety, her graciousness and charm exerting a potent influence in his favor.
In June 1808 Burr took passage for Europe, under an assumed name. Theodosia, also under an assumed name, went north to bid him farewell. The night before he embarked she met him for the last time, and received his papers and final instructions. During the four years of his exile she was his agent in America, raising money--whenever she could--and sending it to him, and transmitting messages.
On her own initiative she wrote to Gallatin and to Mrs. Madison, in an attempt to smooth the way for his return. But when in July 1812 Burr was once again established in New York, Theodosia was unable to go to him immediately. She had been in feeble health, and the death of her son of fever, on June 30, had nearly prostrated her. It was not until December that she was ready to undertake the voyage. Governor Alston's public duties prevented his accompanying her, so she was escorted by "a gentleman with some medical knowledge" whom her father sent down from New York.
On December 30, 1812, they embarked on the Patriot, and sailed out of Georgetown Harbor, but the Patriot never reached port.
Many stories have been related over the years explaining the disappearance of the pilot boat, its captain, crew and all that were on board. Reports from the death beds of pirates telling of the Patriot having been captured and everyone on board killed as well as reports of storm with hurricane-force winds that occured off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina from Saturday, January 2, through Sunday, January 3, 1813. Theodosia's husband, Joseph Alston of All Saints Waccamaw, Georgetown County, South Carolina died just three years later on September 10, 1816 at 37 years of age.
Theodosia Burr dedicated her own life to full support of her father Aaron Burr, who was a well known American politician and the third Vice President of the United States. Her dedication became especially extremely important while her father remained in exile, after he shot his political rival Alexander Hamilton in a famous duel in 1804. During those times, Theodosia acted as his agent in the United States, raising money which she sent to him, and transmitting messages. She also wrote letters to Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin and to Dolley Madison in an effort to secure a smooth return for her father. She was also a wife to Joseph Alston, who was governor of South Carolina during the War of 1812.
She is most interesting in her relations with that erratic father, to whom, through all the vicissitudes of his career, she was passionately devoted. She was his confidante, whom he did not try to deceive. But she seems to have been blind to his frailties.
Quotations: When her father was in the deepest disgrace, --already an exile from home, he had been asked to leave England, --she wrote to him: "You appear to me so superior, so elevated above other men; I contemplate you with such strange mixture of humility, admiration, reverence, love and pride, that very little superstition would be necessary to make me worship you as a superior being. . I had rather not live than not be the daughter of such a man. "
Quotes from others about the person
At sixteen she was one of the belles of New York society, but without "the attendant vacuity of mind. "
"If I could foresee, " Aaron Burr wrote once to his wife, "that Theo would become a mere fashionable woman, with all the attendant frivolity and vacuity of mind, adorned with whatever grace and allurement, I would earnestly pray God to take her forthwith hence. But I yet hope by her to convince the world what neither sex appears to believe--that women have souls" (Pidgin, 165).
On February 2, 1801 she was married to Joseph Alston, and became prominent in South Carolina social circles. In June 1812, Theodosia lost her 10-year-old son to yellow fever.
1756–1836
1746–1794
1785–1788
1802–1812
1779–1816
As head of the state militia, he could not accompany her on the trip north. Burr sent Timothy Green, an old friend, to accompany her instead. Green possessed some medical knowledge.
